Considered the first major artist of the British Pop Art movement, Richard Hamilton was born in London in 1922. At age 14 he began taking evening art classes at Westminster Technical College and studied at the Royal Academy School from 1938 until its wartime closure in 1940. Though he returned to the Royal Academy School in 1946, he was expelled and forced to undertake 18 months military service. Upon completion, Hamilton studied at the Slade School of Fine Art. His brief collaboration with Kenneth Tyler at Tyler Graphics in 1975 is represented in the National Gallery’s collection of four prints.

The colour lithographs entitled Flower-piece B were originally conceived as a triptych. Taking as their focal point a precisely rendered roll of Andrex toilet paper set against an ornate floral background, the Flower-piece B prints are characteristic of Hamilton’s work, which consistently draws upon consumer culture and the juxtaposition of disparate styles typically seen in advertising.
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